BRADENTON, Fla. — Support staff with the Manatee County School District have gotten a much-needed pay bump as the impact of the pandemic still weighs heavy on staffing at many school districts.
Members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have ratified an agreement with the district for base salary increases for the 2021-2022 school year.
The salary improvements for AFSCME employees would be retroactive to July 1, 2021.
The workers who fall under the umbrella of the AFSCME include bus drivers and other transportation department staff, cafeteria workers in food services, custodians, maintenance crews and other employee groups within the district's operations division.
A tentative agreement was reached between the district and AFSCME in late December 2021 which members ratified on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. The School Board is scheduled to vote on approval of the ratified agreement at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. The total cost estimate of the AFSCME package is $2,211,728 from three different funding sources.
According to a statement from the district, here's a look at the increases that were approved:
- Positive efforts made to bring up lower levels of the salary scale to help with filling needed vacancies while increasing wages; *uniform and shoe allowance increase
- All qualified employees will receive advancement on the salary scale as specified in the current AFSCME Contract
- A $1,000 (gross amount) employee retention bonus for those who have worked for the district since January 1, 2021, who are still employed
"I want to thank and congratulate everyone involved in reaching and ratifying this agreement," Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said. "Improving employee compensation for AFSCME employees will help us attract and retain individuals who are critical to the mission and to the success of serving the needs of our students and families."
"There's not a lot of money from the state for salary enhancements so we are making the effort to say our employees are very important and we're going to step up and do what we can here," Deputy Superintendent of Operation Doug Wagner said.
"I think overall we have a great contract and everyone from the administration to the employees demonstrated a lot of passion and commitment in coming to this agreement," Deanna Howell, AFSCME President for the local chapter, said.
Howell has been a school bus driver with the district for 17 years and said many like her had started to feel over-worked and undervalued.
"We discussed it because of the governor extending this to the teachers and we felt like, yes, as essential workers and if the money was available that it should be also afforded to our employees as well and they worked with us," she said.